An editorial by Peter Bart in yesterday’s Variety has apparently shed light on the real reason Eon unceremoniously dumped Pierce Brosnan as James Bond at exactly this time last year.

Surprise, surprise…it was all about money.

To star as 007 for a fifth and final time in next years Casino Royale, Bart claims Pierce was asking for a “compensation package” (meaning percentage of profits, etc.) that would “total out north of $40 million.”

Just to put this in perspective, this is more than the total budgets of the first nine James Bond films combined!

It now looks like Pierce’s repeated talk of the producers being in a state of paralysis might have instead been a bad case of sticker shock!

Pierce was reportedly paid $16 million for his last Bond outing, Die Another Day.

Do you think Pierce was worth this price? Or did Eon do the right thing in letting him go?
Join the debate in this thread on the CBn Forums.
Thanks to “hrabb04” for helping with this article.